An English Translation of the blog Mala Letra, from Havana, Cuba

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Category Archives: Translator: L. Rodriguez

Near the house there is a store in CUC where after closing it seems they turn off the refrigerators and then turn them back on in the morning when they open again, such that when they open the frozen food is thawed with an unpleasant look and a horrible smell. Just in case, I never buy at the store, but the other day I went for a bottle of oil and I heard this surreal dialogue:

– Compañera! Why are the hot dogs always soft? (An older gentleman with a baseball cap that has left a bag with groceries in the door.)

– Compañero, it’s that the fridge is defective.

– What do you mean by defective!!!

– Defective, it doesn’t freeze well.

– Are you sure?

– What do you mean am I sure, Compañero?

– Yes, young lady, because it seems the refrigerator is neurotic, or Mr. Fridge is giving her a bad time, because if I come in the morning the products are thawed, but in the afternoon they have solved their problems and everything here is frozen.

Last Friday, the 8th, the newspaper Granma, published an extensive anonymous two-page work taken from Olive-Green Editions*, about the plural legacy of Marti, titled: “The idea of ​​a single party is a legacy of José Martí.”

It is not a new complaint. The argument is that Marti created a party and only one party for the independence of Cuba. Marti put all his energy into organizing the ideal of independence, in taming the will of the patriots of the great war, drawing lessons from that defeat, facing reformism and annexation, which he considered inadequate and damaging to Cuba.

Once the objectives of the struggle were obtained, and the new republic achieved, it would open a space for the formation of parties that could channel the political leanings of the Cuban people. These quotes make clear the Marti’s concept of a republic with all and for the good of all:

“… Or the Republic is based on the whole character of each one of its children, the habit of working with their hands and thinking for themselves, the full exercise of and respect for family honor, the full exercise of the others: the passion, finally, for the decency of man…

“…Or the Republic is not worth one of our women’s tears, not a single drop of blood of our brave. A people is composed of many wills. The republic … will not be the unfair dominance of one class of Cubans over the other, but open and honest balancing of all the real forces in the country and of the free thoughts and desires of all Cubans. Every public party must fit with its people.

“The Revolutionary Party, whose transient mission will cease the day Cuba achieves its part in the war and there is an accord on the island, will have no leaders that rise up, nor old or new bosses that put themselves over the country, nor pretensions that would overtake the prior rights of the first republic and the new and supreme law of the land.”

These last two quotes are important for a man whose command of language is recognized, because they demolish the thesis that Martí supported a society with a single party. If there are politicians who have created more than one party, it would have to be a curiosity.

The will that leads to the creation of a new political force obeys the lack of the same, or a rupture within an existing organization. Marti created a pro-independence party, because no party existed that matched his objectives. To legitimize the current one-party rule through Marti’s ideology is nothing but a manipulation of history.

Translated by: L. Rodriguez

*Note from Translator: Verde Olivo [Olive-Green] Editions is an editorial house that is part of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (Revolutionary Armed Forces) of Cuba. They publish books related to military topics.

I was recently asked about the time when I used to teach. My teaching experience was with General Integral Professors*, teachers known as Emerging or “Instantaneous.” In addition to help in preparing to teach classes, I visited and assessed them in the classroom. Those guys were very young and came mostly from the eastern provinces.

Teaching as a profession has fallen out of favor, teachers receive no pay in CUCs, they are prohibited from traveling abroad, and the demands of dealing with rowdy students are very high, so nobody wants (or wanted to, I will talk about what I knew) to be a teacher.

These guys were trained to be teachers, worked and studied for a salary only of interest to someone of 17, 18, who came to the capital, and the boys did not have to serve their military service. They arrived timid and simple and not all but most, especially boys, they quickly caught on to the game to the situation.

Because the school system was like a boarding school, some used to buy candy and cigarettes to sell among students. Sexual relations with students (sex does not mean love) were common. I had prepare the exams and there was one time when I was going to give an exam in the afternoon hours and about eleven o’clock those responsible for my course called and told me to give them the test and scoring key with the correct answers.

The exercise was simple, answer true or false, match columns and stuff. By lunchtime the students knew, not answers, hopefully!, but the order of the scoring key. I turned it into a disaster for them by changing the order of questions.

At the end of year party, those boys from the provinces had transformed their image with Adidas or Nike shoes, Emporio Armani boxer shorts coming out over those jeans that are discolored and broken from the factory; bright Dolce Gabbana tee shirts, colorful tattoos and teeth with gold caps showing the capital’s prosperity.

I knew the trick of exchanging grades for material goods, and judging by that look, much bartering had occurred. They felt they were not doing anything immoral, it was what had hit them and were getting profit as best they could or knew. With few exceptions, some are still “educating” the new generations.

*Translator’s Note: General Integral Professors are professors that are educated to teach right after they finish high school in a short period of time. The lack of professors in Cuba has led to this alternative.

“23rd and M” is a Saturday program on Cuban television, which takes its name from the downtown corner where the TV studios are located. A massive building that also houses offices, a cinema, food service, a hairdresser and barber, and, until recently, just at the lower corner, a pharmacy.

Cuban pharmacies attract the attention of foreigners because at first they can not specify the function of those half-empty shelf spaces, full only of murals with explanations of natural medicines, posters that warn of the dangers of smoking, the importance of breastfeeding or the need for the use of condoms. The spacious pharmacy at 23rd and M did not escape these features and became an ugly wart just opposite to the Habana Libre (a famous Cuban hotel) and near the Coppelia ice cream stand. A black wall of moisture leaking from the “Mandarin” restaurant in the highest part of the building, I guess, forced the closing.

The pharmacy was dismantled and the site remained dormant for a few months until recently it has been reopened, now as part of the photo center chain “PhotoService.” Bright lights, shiny shelves, nothing suggests the newcomer who passed the corner without seeing anything of interest, that for some time there was a pharmacy that sold medications in domestic currency.

Talking abut my cousin the filmmaker may seem excessive, but the Young Filmmaker’s Festival doesn’t have a single bad film. Miguel Coyula’s movie which was not accepted into the competition of the last Latin American Film Festival, is part of the program, so full disclosure is avoided. For those who aren’t aware, it already won the award for best film in the Havana Film Festival in New York, but that didn’t help. The protagonist in general and some scenes in particular made the film a politically incorrect piece. There were even objections to Memorias competing in the 10th Young Filmmaker’s Festival, but Fernando Perez, as president, asserted his own prestige and it was included. Memories of Overdevelopment was unbelievable and emerged as the indisputable winner of this competitive contest.

What follows has nothing to do with my cousin, but with the news in the press. The awards were presented Sunday night, to coincide with the Oscars, a prize which is often abused in the Cuban media for prioritizing the commercial and media-friendly over quality. And so the television newscast missed the Cuban event in the hour it aired on Monday, but not the Oscars, with visual coverage for major awards (parentheses for Portman, I am her fan since Closer).

It wasn’t until three days later that Granma reviewed the closure of the Exhibition. In a small box signed by a journalism student. Unlike the Oscars, the news is confusing, it would seem that the work that one is another (a work that achieved recognition, no prizes). The student has signed an article in which Miguel Coyula also took the podium on two occasions. “Memories” received the following awards:

Best feature film, best original music, the award of the Cuban Association of Film Critics, the SIGNIS of the church, and the Musical Editor’s Award of Cuba.

After reading the brief note I think:

1.- That the journalism student is friend of the producer of the work that he calls out in his note.

2.-That the journalism student didn’t see the work, and wasn’t even at the awards ceremony.

3.- That the journalism student signed a work written by another person.

Other languages

Help translate!!

Regina Coyula

Regina Coyula. Born in Havana, 1956. A degree in history. Between 1972 and 1989, I worked in the Counterintelligence Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior.* Afterwards, I worked (or pretended to work) as a chauffeur, massage therapist, teacher, artisan and sales person. I am an atrocious homemaker, nevertheless, I have been “governing” my husband and son for twenty years.
*Cuban Security equivalent of the KGB